Someone smack me over the head for complaining, please.

Today we had our last homestudy meeting! YAY!

Today, a stranger donated to our adoption fund.

Today, another stranger bought two t-shirts to support bringing our kids home. And offered to send them books!

But, really, who am I to call these awesome people strangers? Erika and Ilya, orphans in a far away country, have a FAMILY waiting for them here in the United States. A family which I’m learning is much more than me and Aaron, extends beyond our literal families, into a family of people who have a heart for orphans and want to see Erika and Ilya home. How incredible!

Also, if you have not heard about the Shupp family, please check out their blog. They have had an unusual surprise come up in the last few days before leaving for their child’s country and now need to raise $3000 more. Lyndi is not only a sweetheart, but she also volunteers for RR and helps people like us bring our kids home, by checking our paperwork and answering our questions. Please pray for them and donate, if you are able.

I have so much I’d like to share with you all, so much I’d like to post about, that I don’t even know where to begin. I am so grateful to the two donations which we got recently– our largest donations yet, from two awesome people.

One of these donors, when I thanked her, mentioned that she would have donated anonymously if she had known how, so let me tell you how! You can donate directly to Erika & Ilya’s fund, which I believe we get after our dossier is submitted. You can either donate via Paypal to Reece’s Rainbow OR mail RR a check, but be sure to note that it is for Erika and Ilya’s family or Aaron & Molly… there are currently 3 families with our last name. Also make a note that you’d like to be anonymous. I am not sure about their policy on that… someone will see it is from you, but we will not.

My dear friend Amy has so generously offered to hold a fundraiser for us! She is hoping to hold an evening of family photography sessions here in Lawrence, which will benefit our adoption. Amy is a fantastic photographer and a great person to work with– she has two little boys of her own and she’s a real Southern sweetheart, so I promise that she’ll be a pleasure to work with. Please email me at MMorris87 at gmail dot com, if you’d like more details.

I thought it might be interesting to break down for you where we are cost-wise, what we’ve spent so far. I’d like this blog to benefit other folks adopting, so here is a list of our up-front costs.
$225 Voice of Hope Fund Donation to Reece’s Rainbow
$2000 Promise Trust Fund Deposit to Reece’s Rainbow ($1000 per child, which we will get back as long as the adoption goes through)
$150 ($75 for each of us) for passports– yes, we both just needed changes so this is a bit cheaper than the usual fees
$8 (paper for passport photos)
$830 for USCIS clearance (for the i-600a, $670 for the i-600a, plus $80 per adult in household)
$22 for FedEx for send our Child Specific Petition and Power of Attorney forms to Eastern Europe (my mom actually paid this for us, because she is fantastic and gets a great FedEx discount, otherwise it would have been much much more)
$700 deposit for home study
$50 ($25 per person) co-pay for physicals
$15 ($10 for Aaron, $5 for me) for fingerprinting for KBI
$150 ($75 per person) for KBI fingerprinting clearance
$20 for SRS clearance
$10 for reference letter from Bank of America
$56 for marriage license copies
$40 for my birth certificate copies
$56 for Aaron’s birth certificate copies
$37.50 for apostilles
About $5 in postage for things we’ve needed to mail

I *think* that is all of it. Total $4374.50 to start the adoption process. I tried to note where our costs might be different than the average person’s. I do think that they tend to be a bit lower than the average person, partly because we live in Kansas, so the homestudy costs a bit less, partly because of things like my mom’s FedEx discount and the fact that I just needed my name changed on my passport and Aaron had a passport card. It costs A LOT to start an adoption.

One last thing, can I make a request for donations of clothing for Erika and Ilya, if you are local or would be willing to mail them to us? I’d love donations of clothing in good shape from sizes 12 months to 4T. I read on the Reece’s Rainbow Yahoo group that someone’s 2 recently adopted 2yo and one 3 yo all wear size 12-18months, so if you have those sizes, please consider saving them for us. We are not too proud to have our kids wear hand-me-downs!

The first of our fundraisers is a common adoption one, JustLove coffee. JustLove Coffee is all fair trade coffee and for each bag someone purchases from our link, we get $5 towards our adoption! Pretty awesome, right?

http://www.justlovecoffee.com/IlyaandErika

The second fundraiser that we’re doing is something unique to us and something that I am really excited about… Ukraine love t-shirts! The t-shirts come in standard men’s t-shirts sizes S-XL, women’s fitted t-shirts sizes S-XL, youth t-shirts S-XL, a few different options for toddler shirts (18mo-5T) and infant bodysuits 0-18mo. They come in a variety of colors and I can print almost any color ink on them… I have everything from cookie monster blue to stainless steel silver to wedding ivory.

I am also happy to personalize the t-shirts for you for $5… by moving the heart, adding text or even featuring a different country.  I am doing all of the printing in my own home… I screenprint around a thousand napkins a week, so screenprinting is not something new to me. The t-shirts are heat-set so they are fine in the washer and dryer.

To check out the t-shirt options, visit my etsy store: http://www.etsy.com/shop/thepaperhat?section_id=7089346